


Ben, Leslie and a Pair of Handcuffs

by c00kie



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Handcuffs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2015-08-01
Packaged: 2018-04-12 08:35:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4472555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c00kie/pseuds/c00kie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leslie and Ben are sworn enemies. When they're handcuffed to each other for a school project,  the tension between them increases. (originally posted on tumblr)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt fic that grew out of control. I have tried to clean it up as best I could, but i'm sure it's still quite messy. Please forgive. And thank you everyone who read and encouraged this monster during its production.

“Okay class, today we’re going to do a little experiment!” 

The class groaned, Leslie included. She liked Mrs. Hemsley but her experiments were often met with disastrous results. The last one, in particular, ended in what was probably the biggest food fight in Pawnee history. The entire town was involved, neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, brother against brother. It was like the Civil War, but with less blood and more ketchup. 

Mrs. Hemsley ignored the protests. “I am going to randomly call names. When I call your name, you will come up here and draw a name out of a hat. Then you will take a pair of these-” she pulled a pair of handcuffs out of the box next to her-“and lock yourselves together.”

The protests only got louder. Did she really believe that they were just going to handcuff themselves together? 

“You will notice,” Mrs. Hemsley’s voice rose above the crowd, “that each pair has a number on it. That number is assigned to a key. That only I have. Because it’s Friday, you will stay handcuffed until class on Monday. You are also expected to write a joint paper about your experience, 1800 words minimum, double spaced.”

“What if we have jobs?" 

"I’m sure if you tell your boss this is for school they will understand." 

Leslie highly doubted that, but since she was off for the weekend, she wasn’t worried for herself. She was, however, concerned for her friends. 

One by one, Mrs. Hemsley began to call out random names, and with each pairing and awkward clicking of locks, Leslie began to fear the possibility of whom she might be handcuffed too. 

Best case scenario, Ann. 

Worst case scenario: Jerry. At least Orin wasn’t in this class.

Absolute worst please god don’t let this happen or I will die please, please, please, please, scenario: Ben. For as long as Leslie could remember, she and Ben hated each other. She was’t sure when the animosity began, only that whenever she saw him, her skin felt hot, her stomach sick. 

There was also the time in middle school when he stole her seat at lunch so he could flirt with Lindsay, forcing Leslie to sit at the same table as April and Orin. And yes, okay, April was now one of Leslie’s closest friends and Lindsay was now an Eagleton snob, but it didn’t change the fact Ben was a jerk with stupid hair. 

But then Ann’s name is called and Leslie can tell by the look on her best friend’s beautiful face that it’s definitely not her name on that slip of paper. “Tom.”

"Yeah,” Tom said, doing a fist pump, “It’s you and me cupcake.”

Ann gave Leslie a look that said both, ‘help me’ and ‘I’m sorry.’ as she walked to Tom. 

Leslie couldn’t watch. 

At least Jean Ralphio was already taken and being dressed down by Donna, who if Leslie knew her friend, was mostly pissed she wasn’t handcuffed to someone hot. 

Maybe Leslie would get lucky and she’d get handcuffed to Chris. He was good looking. 

On second thought, he would make her exercise so scratch that. 

“Jerry Gergich." 

"Please don’t be me, please don’t be me,” Leslie prayed under her breath. 

“Gayle Stone." 

To Leslie’s dismay, Gayle actually smiled and clapped as Jerry started to make his way toward her. But then he tripped over his own foot, falling down. 

"Are you okay?” Gayle asked, running up to him. Leslie watched, as if it was a car crash. 

“Leslie Knope." 

Leslie walked to the front of the class as if walking to her execution. There were still quite a few people left and some of them weren’t so bad. They weren’t Ann Perkins level of awesome, but she could spend forty eight hours with them. Keeping those positive thoughts in mind, she pulled a name out of the hat. 

And then she looked at the name. 

And came to the conclusion that God hated her. 

"Can I pick again?" 

"No, Miss Knope. Take your handcuffs and go to your partner.”

Wincing, Leslie took handcuffs numbered nine and walked to the corner of the classroom where Ben Wyatt sat, looking just as pissed as she felt. 

“Hey,” he asked Mrs. Hemsley, before she could cuff herself to him, “What happens if we refuse to do this?”

“It’s forty percent of your grade." 

"Forty-” Ben shook his head. “Fuck.”

“No cursing, Mr. Wyatt.”

Ben glared at Mrs. Hemsley who was no longer paying any attention and turned his scowl toward Leslie, who really wished the ground would just swallow her whole. Forty percent? There was no way she was going to risk that, no matter how much she hated Ben. 

So Leslie glared back. She wasn’t going to be intimated. “Which arm do you prefer?” 

“Neither.”

“Right it is,” she said, closing the metal around his slim wrist before he could protest. Then she closed it around her left arm, wincing as it clicked. 

This weekend was going to be hell.


	2. Chapter 2

When the bell rang, Ben quickly stuffed his things into his bag. “I have sci-fi club.”

“Oh no, you are not making me go to that,” Leslie said as they went to her desk for her things. She glanced over at Ann, who already looked like she was about to kill Tom and smiled. Ann just shook her head.

“Look, Knope, it’s bad enough I have to spend the weekend chained to you. I was supposed to go on a date tonight, but now I can’t, because of this.” He pointed to the metal bracelet around his wrist. “So I’m going to sci fi club whether you like it or not.”

“Do you think I wanted this?” Leslie asked, shaking their arms. “I practically prayed for it to be anyone other than you!”

“Well, obviously God hates both of us,” Ben said, just as his friend Garth walked by with Cindy Miller, who smiled flirtatiously at Ben. Seeing him smile back, Leslie’s gut churned and she had to look away before she threw up.

“Club’s canceled today.”

Leslie clapped. “Yay!”

Ben though, shot her a glare before turning to Garth. “What? No.”

“Cindy here doesn’t want to go.” Garth said, rolling his eyes at her.

“I’ve changed my mind,” Cindy said, still staring at Ben. “I’d totally love to go to your club.”

Leslie sighed. “Of course you do.”

It wasn’t that Leslie hated science fiction. She was more of a fantasy and political thrillers kind of girl, but she liked some Sci Fi. She loved Star Wars and sometimes when she couldn’t sleep she would watch old episodes of the Twilight Zone. What she didn’t like was having to sit through an hour and thirty minutes of Ben arguing with his friends about Philip K Dick and which movie based on his work was the best. The other annoying thing was the way Cindy leaned forward, as if every word that came out of Ben’s mouth was the most fascinating thing in the universe. She didn’t understand it. Yes, okay, she could objectively see why, from a distance, another girl might find him attractive. His brown hair was rather nice and he did have a cute butt, and maybe his tiny body was kind of sexy, but he was also a huge jerk who called her a prude just because she asked him to stop making out in front of her locker.

Leslie wasn’t a prude. She just wanted her books.

She zoned out the best she could, but when Ben finished explaining the plot to Blade Runner to Cindy with, “It’s better if you watch it. I have it if you want to watch it together, sometime.” Leslie rolled her eyes.

“Problem, Knope?”

Yeah, she had a problem, and it was him. But before she could make her retort, Ben turned around and continued flirting with Cindy. At least Leslie could tell Garth was also annoyed, although she doubted it was for the same reason.

She ignored the sick feeling in her stomach when Cindy gave Ben her phone number when the meeting was called to an end.

“So how are we going to do this?” Ben asked. It through her for a loop, because so far, Ben had done nothing but act like she was an unfortunate tick he couldn’t wait to put a match to.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, we can’t stay at my house,” Ben said as they went out the doors to the parking lot. “My dad…just no.”

“Oh, well my mom is pretty cool. I’m sure she’ll be fine with it.” Leslie knew her mom would actually be furious, but she wasn’t going tell Ben that.

“Yeah, fine,” Ben said, turning left.

Realizing he was going to his car, Leslie stopped. “Hey!”

Her arm jerked. “What?”

“My car is that way.” She pointed over at her Volkswagen.

“And?”

“And…” It was then that Leslie realized that Ben would have to drive. “Crap on a cat.”

“That’s a new one,” Ben said, sounding almost fond. “Do you need anything out of your car?”

“Yes,” Leslie answered quickly, wondering why Ben was being nice. Of course, she thought as they walked toward her car, it probably had something to do with him getting Cindy’s phone number.

After Leslie got her cds and books and decided against taking her bag of candy necklaces, they walked back to Ben’s Saturn in silence. Or rather, Ben walked back to his car and Leslie ran to keep up with his long strides. While Ben wasn’t the tallest guy in school, he was definitely taller than her, his steps larger. “You can slow down you know.”

“I need to grab some stuff from my house,” Ben said, opening his door so Leslie could crawl through, “and I’d really rather do it before my dad gets home.”

“Why? Leslie asked as Ben shut his door. "He isn’t?”

“What? No. I just really don’t want to explain this-” he waved their arms- “to him.”

“Oh. Won’t he wonder where you are though?”

“He’ll think I’m at Chris’,” Ben said. “It’s usually where I am anyway.” Then he turned his radio up and Leslie knew that it meant the conversation was over. And even though Leslie still had questions, she stayed silent and hummed along with the music.

“Oh fuck,” Ben said when they got to his house. Leslie looked, seeing a red camaro in the driveway.

“Is that your dad?”

“Worse, my brother. I guess he’s home this weekend.” Ben closed his eyes and growled. “Fuck. Okay, I need you to follow my lead.”

“What?”

“Just, come on,” Ben said, opening his door and getting out. “Faster,” he said while she crawled over.

Leslie glared at him as she stepped out of the car. “I’ll have you-”

“Don’t care,” He said, grabbing his windbreaker from the back seat, draping it over her shoulders. pulling her toward the house. Leslie continued to glare, wishing she had telekinesis so she could make his head explode, but then Ben opened the door and they walked inside where a tall, rather cute guy watching TV in the living room. Leslie was so taken aback that she barely registered Ben’s hand going behind her back, underneath his jacket.

“Oh hey, Benji,” the guy said, with a wave before he turned his attention to Leslie. “You Benji’s new girl?”

Leslie said nothing.

He laughed. “Oh, Benji, you pick up a shy one?”

“Yeah,” Ben said, looking at Leslie with fake affection. “She’s really shy.”

“Huh,” his brother said, “you don’t usually like shy ones.”

It was then that Leslie’s brain clicked on. “Oh, right. Sorry. Yes, I’m Ben’s new girl.”

“Look, we’re gonna go up to my room for awhile,” Ben said, pulling Leslie closer.

“Yeah, okay,” Henry said, still looking at Leslie like he wasn’t sure what his brother saw in her, “you sticking around?”

“No, that okay?”

Henry shrugged. “‘You know it. Have fun, be safe.”

Leslie pulled a face, but it went unnoticed as Ben turned them toward the stairs. She followed him up the room.

“I don’t understand what just happened,” Leslie said once the door shut. “You could have just told him the truth.”

Ben opened his closet and bent down, which meant Leslie also had to kneel while he got his gym bag and threw it on his bed. “The truth is worse.”

“Why, because it’s me?”

“No,” Ben said, walking over to his dresser. But he said nothing else, so Leslie took the opportunity to look around his room. There were posters on his wall, of alternative bands and movies, and one of Kathy Ireland on his door. On the top of his dresser were action figures, mostly Star Wars and Star Trek, but there were some Batman and X-Men ones as well.

“I really like your Catwoman,” she said, but he was already pulling her to his book case. Leslie believed you could tell a lot about a person from the books they read and how they organized their shelves. There was a lot of fantasy and science fiction, which wasn’t surprising, but there was also a lot of non fiction, mainly history and books on politics.

They were all organized by genre, then author, just like Leslie’s.

He grabbed several, tossing them onto his bed.

“I just need to grab my toothbrush and razor,” Ben said, before Leslie could internally panic about how much they had in common. It wasn’t like she didn’t know Ben’s interests, he was on the student council and did Model UN, but she always figured it was a passing phase. Or maybe she hoped he was.

They hurried to the bathroom where he grabbed his toothbrush out of a coffee cup along with his shaving cream, razor and antiperspirant.

Eventually, Ben’s bag was packed and zipped. Leslie sighed with relief, she just wanted to be home already, where she could fall into a good book and pretend Ben wasn’t there.

“Are we going?”

Ben didn’t answer her. “Say my name.”

Leslie knew what he was asking her to do. It was bad enough Henry thought they were having sex, she didn’t need to give him any kind of proof. “No!”

“Leslie!” Ben yelled, glaring at her. “Do it,” he mouthed.

“Why?” She asked, “Why couldn’t I just be tutoring you or something?”

Ben sighed, raking his fingers through his hair. “Because I have the highest GPA in the class and he won’t believe it but he’ll believe this, so come on, Knope.”

She stuck her tongue at him. He just rolled his eyes. “Yeah, babe,” he said, voice rising, “just like that.”

“You’re disgusting,” Leslie whispered, before saying his name in the most bland tone she could. “Louder.”

She rolled her eyes but said it slightly louder. “Ben!”

“Leslie.” The way he said her name was so passionate she would have believed he meant it if he wasn’t standing in front of her looking almost bored.

It was then that Leslie’s competitive side kicked in. “BEN!” she shouted, adding a deep moan.

“Oh god, Leslie.” He added a groan of his own.

“C'mon, Ben, harder.”

Ben’s mouth fell open, his eyes blinking rapidly. Leslie was about to claim victory when he said, “Come on, baby, come for me.” His voice was husky, but loud enough that he could definitely be heard.

Leslie knew what Ben wanted, but she was torn between giving a great performance that would make Meg Ryan jealous, or acting disappointed in an effort to humiliate him.

Then he laughed, his expression saying, 'I knew you couldn’t do it,’ and her choice was made, for no other reason than to see Ben’s stupid, smug smile drop off his stupid, smug face.

When she was done, her throat hurt and she needed to catch her breath, but it was worth it seeing Ben’s stunned expression. She grabbed Ben’s shirt and yanked him close. “You don’t tell anyone this happened, got it?”

“Whatever, Knope,” Ben said, laughing as he pushed her hand away. He grabbed his bag, throwing it over his shoulder. “Ready?”

She was about ready to say yes when he shook his head. “Oh shit, I almost forgot,he said and before Leslie could protest, he was messing up her hair. Then he did the same thing to his and untucked his shirt, unbuttoning the first few buttons. Then he let out a breath. "Untuck your shirt.”

Leslie wanted to say no. She really did, but she found herself following Ben’s order. “You owe me for this.”

“I have to spend the weekend with you,” he said, “I think that’s enough."


	3. Chapter 3

“Nice car,” Ben said, referring to her mom’s Audi as they climbed out of his. Leaving the Wyatt house had been been awkward and aggravating. Henry was cute, but he was also a giant pill, which made sense considering how terrible Ben was, but the way he winked at her and tried to high five Ben was too much. She wanted to give him a piece of her mind but Ben pulled her out before she could.

“She’ll be glad you think so.” Leslie however, was pretty sure her mom was going to kill them. It was bad enough that she was handcuffed to a boy, but they were also disheveled. And while her mom was rather progressive when it came to sex, having put Leslie on birth control after she got her first period in middle school, Leslie doubted she wanted to see her only daughter like this. “Hold on,” she said.

He stilled, eyebrows raised as she took her hairbrush out of her purse, quickly using it it before handing to to Ben. “Brush your hair.”

“I’m not using that.”

“Well you need to do something! My mom is going to think we had sex.”

“Okay.”

“No, not okay! She’s going to think this is some kinky sex thing that went wrong!”

Again, Ben shrugged, as if he didn’t see the problem.

Leslie wanted to beat him to death with her hairbrush, but decided against it because it would be too easy to pin it on her. "Fine. At least fix your clothes. Please.“

"Because you said please,” Ben said, buttoning his shirt back up. He even combed his fingers through his hair. “Better?”

“It’ll do,” she said, grabbing her bag out of the back seat.

He reached for his, shutting the door. “Let’s go.”

“Mom?” Leslie called once they were inside her house. The quicker they explained what was going on, the quicker her mother would get over it; at least, that’s what Leslie was hoping for.

“Oh good, sweetie, you’re home,” Marlene said, coming around the corner. “I was just about to call Ann’s house to see if you were-” Marlene stopped the moment she saw Ben- “there. Who’re you?”

“I’m Ben Wyatt.” Leslie turned to him, wondering why he sounded so formal.

“Well, Ben Wyatt, do you mind explaining what you’re doing here?” She frowned at them, her eyes darting up and down their bodies until she finally caught sight of the handcuffs. “Handcuffed to my daughter?”

Leslie watched Ben swallow. “Uh, well, it’s uh, like um-”

“Mrs. Hemsley handcuffed us together,” Leslie said. “We have to stay together until Monday or it’s forty percent of our grade.”

“That woman should be fired,” Marlene said with a sigh before coming over to inspect them. “Who has the key?”

“She does.”

Marlene shook her head. “Does she want you to get pregnant?”

“Trust me, mom, that won’t be a problem.” And not just because of the birth control.

Marlene ignored her though, sidestepping so she was right in front of Ben, saying nothing as she stared him down. She could feel him shaking beside her. Leslie was pretty sure she’d never seen anyone that scared in her entire life, and her mother was notorious for being tough.

“You will respect my daughter and her boundaries at all times.”

He swallowed. “Yes, ma'am.”

“You will sleep on the sofa bed in the den. If Leslie is in anyway nude you will turn around and not look until she tells you to.”

“Yes.”

“Good,” Marlene said, smiling. “I’ll order a pizza.”

“I like calzones!” Ben blurted out. Marlene stopped and looked at Leslie, who could only shake her head. Ben’s weird taste in food only served as kindling for her righteous hate. Shaking her head, Marlene disappeared to the kitchen.

“Come on,” Leslie said, “I want to change.”

“Oh, uh yeah. me too.”

Since taking off their shirts was impossible, the most they could do was put on different pants. This was, of course, far easier said than done, but at least there was no one else there to witness Leslie’s humiliation. And at least Ben was being respectful and not looking or complaining apart from an occasional, “Watch it, Knope.”

“Is that a framed autographed picture of Adam West?”

Finally in her red plaid pajama bottoms, Leslie turned to look at the picture Ben was pointing at on her dresser. “Yeah. My dad got it for me.”

“Oh. Uh, where is he?”

“A cemetery in Florida.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

That wasn’t what Leslie expected Ben to say, but she was grateful he didn’t choose that moment to be a jerk. “Thank you. Is your mom gone too?”

“Uh, no. She still lives in Minnesota,” he said, while he unzipped his jeans. Leslie did her best not to react when he pulled them down and her hand accidentally skimmed his thigh. The good news is Ben apparently had better coordination than she did, and was able to put on his pajama bottoms with relative ease. And if Leslie noticed their pants matched when he turned around, she didn’t say anything.

What she did say turned out to be much worse. “Oh, so that’s where you go in the summer!” She wondered why he always seemed to vanish once the school year was over.

“Yeah.” Ben did a double take. “Wait, you noticed I was gone?”

Leslie wished he would stop looking at her like she’d just confessed she loved him. Noticing someone was gone and having feelings were not the same thing. She glared back. “Don’t be flattered. I just happened to notice you were gone.”

“Did you miss me?”

“No.”

“You did. You missed me.” He put his hand on her shoulder and made eye contact. His eyes reminded her of chocolate. She pushed that thought aside quickly. "I just want you know, that if you weren’t such a pain in the ass I would be touched.“

"Whatever. Let’s go.”

“Sure, uh can I use your phone? I haven’t actually canceled my date yet.”

“Yeah, fine.” The only reason Leslie agreed was because she’d been stood up before and it was the worst feeling, so she didn’t want whatever poor girl Ben had gotten his over sized hands on this week to feel that kind of rejection. It was awkward though, standing there while he talked to the girl. She tried not to listen, but he hadn’t even turned away. It was if he wanted her to hear him be nice and apologize to someone else as if he wanted to rub it in her face that he was capable of being a decent person to everyone who wasn’t her.

Eventually Ben hung up. “Okay, let’s go.”

“Oh no,” Leslie said, “you got your phone call, now I’m getting mine.”

Ben laughed. “You don’t have a date.”

“You’re right, I don’t,” Leslie said as she dialed Ann’s number. “Hi, Mrs. Perkins, it’s Leslie Knope from Pawnee Central High. Is Ann there?” While she waited for Ann’s mom to take their cordless phone to wherever Ann was with Tom, she looked at Ben. “You might want to sit down. This is going to take a while.”

 

The first thing Ann said when she answered the phone was, “Tom is driving crazy.”

“Hey, cupcake-”

“Stop calling me that!” Ann yelled, “Leslie you have to help me, I’m going to murder him.”

“It could be worse,” Leslie said, “you could be stuck with Ben.”

Ben though, ignored the jibe and grabbed a book off Leslie’s floor and started to read.

“Oh, I’m sure he can’t be that bad,” Ann said, “did he come up with an entire song about being handcuffed to you?”

“No?”

“Well see, not that bad.”

“It’s not a competition, Ann,” Leslie said. “Wait, a whole song?”

“With a bridge and everything.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Ann sighed. “Me too. I really want to talk more but he’s batting his eyelashes at me and I need to just , stick his head down my toilet or something.”

“Thatta girl,” Leslie said, reluctantly hanging up.

“Hey, Knope,” Ben said, still reading her book on Madeline Albright, “You remember last year when we had to read "Taming of the Shrew” in English?“

"Yeah?”

He snaps the book shut. “You remind me of Kate.”

“I suppose you think that makes you Petruchio?” Leslie asked.

Ben shrugged. “No, but I wouldn’t mind seeing someone train you to be a better person.”

“A better person? You think I’m a bad person? Would a bad person pretend to have sex with you?”

“Well-”

“No, they wouldn’t. I did you a favor, Wyatt,” she said, standing up. Ben glared as he stood with her.

“Oh yeah, that totally makes up for it.”

“Makes up for what?” Leslie shouted. “I didn’t do anything.”

“You didn't…” Ben trailed off, shaking his head as the doorbell rang.

“That’s the pizza.”

“I know,” Ben snapped, turning around and pulling Leslie forward to leave the room.


	4. Chapter 4

The bed in the den was already made up and paper plates and cans of cold Pepsi were already out when then went down stairs. Leslie wanted to hug her mom, but settled on smiling and saying, “Thanks, Mom.”

“Yeah, Ms. Knope. Thanks.”

“Call me Marlene. And you’re welcome,” Marlene said, taking her piece of plate and a glass of chilled white wine with her as she left the kitchen.

“What do you want?” Leslie asked, opening the boxes. “There’s sausage, onions and green peppers and chocolate.”

“Did you say chocolate?”

“Did I stutter?”

Ben let out an annoyed breath. “What’s in that box?” he asked, pointing to a smaller box next to the chocolate pizza.

Leslie shrugged, opening it. “It’s a calzone.”

“Really?”

There was something about Ben’s smile that was sort of endearing. But it was also very annoying. “I guess my mom likes you,” she said, putting it on his plate. “How are you even going to eat that?”

“You’d be amazed at all the stuff I can do with one hand.”

Leslie winced and threw one slice of the sausage, onions and peppers and two of the chocolate onto her plate. “I did not need to know that.”

“I was talking about baseball,” Ben said, “Keep it in your pants, Knope.”

“You keep it in your pants.”

“Both of you keep it in your pants,” Marlene yelled from her office, “or at least wait until I go to bed!”

The mortification Leslie felt was only slightly eased by Ben’s own crimson cheeks. She took a few deep breaths, reminding herself that this was all just temporary and if Ben thought he would tell people about this, she would just find something to use as leverage against him. Maybe she could say she saw his penis and claim it was small. No, that wouldn’t work, too many girls had already seen it.

Crap on a bicycle.

While Leslie was thinking of ways to get revenge against Ben for the crime he hypothetically committed, Ben was already eating. 

Leslie rolled her eyes but began eating as well. Neither of them said anything, which wouldn’t be so bad except she found herself actually studying him.

He had a great jaw. It was the kind of jaw she’d like to bite, if it belonged to almost anyone else.

When they were done, they cleaned up and went into the den where they argued over what movie to watch until they compromised on the History Channel. 

“This is a good one,” Leslie said.

“Oh yeah, I saw this.”

“Wow,” Leslie said, “I’m surprised you had time to watch this. I thought you were too busy having sex with every brunette you know.”

Ben turned so fast he jerked her arm. “First of all, I don’t have as much sex as you seem to think I do, two, why are you thinking about my sex life? Three, it’s not just brunettes and it’s not every brunette. I mean, it’s not like I’ve dated Ann.”

Leslie stared at him for a full ten seconds before bursting out with laughter. “That’s because Ann doesn’t like you.” Ann liked tall, athletic guys, not lithe ones with slim shoulders and flat butts like Ben.

Ben shrugged. “That’s probably true, but even if she did, I still wouldn’t because I’m not into her.”

“That’s crazy, everyone’s into Ann.”

“I’m not.”

Leslie wasn’t sure why this made her happy, but it did. She did her best to hide her smile. "So, uh, what about that girl you were going out with tonight?“

Ben shrugged. "She’s just a girl I met at Paunch Burger.”

“Do you like her?”

“I like her enough to want to go on a date,” Ben said, looking at Leslie like she was crazy. “Why are you asking me this anyway?”

The honest answer was Leslie didn’t know, but she knew better than to admit that, so she looked away and said, “No reason.”

If Ben was about to say something, it was interrupted by Marlene poking her head through the archway. “I’m going to bed, sweetheart. Goodnight. Goodnight, Ben.”

“Good night, mom.”

“Goodnight,” Ben said, before looking at Leslie and saying, “I’m pretty tired too.”

“Oh.” Leslie was afraid of this. She was always the last person to go to bed and the first person to fall asleep.

“What? I know you’re just dying for me to be awake so you can keep annoying me.”

Leslie rolled her eyes. “No, it’s just I’m not tired. Do you mind if I keep this lamp on so I can read my book?”

Ben shrugged. “Whatever, I don’t care. I have to use the bathroom first though.”

“Me too.”

Going to the bathroom was treat. “Don’t listen.” “Why would I want to listen?” “You’re being too quiet, sing something.” “I’m not going to serenade you will you pee, Knope.” But eventually they both did their business and went back into the den, Leslie flicking the overhead light switch off on the way.

Leslie absolutely did not watch Ben sleep. She was a lot of things, but a creeper was not one of them. She did however, listen to him as his breathing slowly became more regular. He didn’t snore or talk in his sleep like she did. He did, however, turn a lot at first, which Leslie didn’t blame him for, given how hard it must be to get comfortable when you’re attached to someone. She just wished that someone wasn’t her and he’d stop pulling her arm this way and that.

She tried her best to concentrate on her book, but Ben’s words from earlier kept cycling through her brain. What did he mean by “It totally makes up for it?” What was it? What did she do? As far as Leslie could recall, Ben just always hated her and she returned the feeling because he was a jerk and deserved every ounce of her ire. But if there was a real, tangible reason for Ben hating her, she wanted to know what that was.

Eventually though, Leslie’s thoughts turned to those of sleep and she put her book aside and turned off the light. Of all the things Leslie thought would be difficult to while handcuffed, she didn’t expect trying to sleep to be the hardest. No matter what she did, her arm never felt right. The only position that felt remotely comfortable was to face away from Ben with her arm at her side, but that meant he had to shift so he was facing her.

And the last thing Leslie ever wanted to do was be spooned by Ben Wyatt.

But it was either that or turn so she was facing him and well, that would be even worse, so she stayed where she was, eyed shut until she fell asleep.

She woke up though a short time later, all too aware his hand was on her breast. It wasn’t cupping her or moving or doing anything, but it was definitely right on her breast. And, to make matters worse, Ben was pressed right against her and she could feel his breath on her neck. She lay there in the dark, wondering if she should push him off or wake him up or just pretend like it wasn’t happening.

Deciding it was best to move him, she gently took his hand off her chest and moved it to her stomach. It wasn’t ideal, because ideal was her sleeping in her own bed, alone, but it would do for now.

It wasn’t so much that Ben’s hand was on her chest that bothered her, it was how much she didn’t mind it.

The thought would linger for a long time until she finally fell back to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

"We should do something today.”

Ben looked up from his bowl of Raisin Bran. There had been a whole discussion about how all of the cereals in Leslie’s house were made out of sugar and how she was going to die of type two diabetes. She accused him of being one of those people who likes Grape Nuts, to which he had said, “Yes. They’re great,” which to Leslie just proved her point.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, something. I don’t want to be stuck in the house all day. What do you do on Saturdays?”

“I play Ultimate Frisbee”

Leslie looked at the handcuffs. “I don’t think that would work.”

“You think?”

Leslie ignored Ben’s sarcastic quip and leaned back in her chair to think. “Well I usually go to Ramsett park and read underneath that big oak. Do you know it?”

“I’m aware,” Ben said, “but isn’t that the same thing as staying here? And really, given the choice, I’d rather stay here. At least there’s a television to drown you out.”

She was going to kill him. It was just a matter of time. “Fine, we won’t go to the park. How about JJ’s?”

“We just ate.”

“We had a bowl of cereal. That’s hardly eating.”

Ben stared at her for a minute, and Leslie stared back, refusing to back down from his judgmental gaze. “Okay, fine. Let’s go to JJ’s.”

“Great,” Leslie said, feeling victorious. “I’ll call Ann.”

 

It took them an hour to get out of the house because Leslie wanted to shower first. She wasn’t sure, but she swear she saw him peak. She didn’t say anything though, afraid that maybe the whole breast holding incident would come up again. Besides, it was probably just her being paranoid. Even if he did take a quick glance, it didn’t mean he liked her.

These thoughts plagued Leslie while they dressed and drove over to JJ’s, where Ann and Tom were waiting.

“Sorry.”

“We just got here too,” Ann said. “Hello, Ben.”

Ben, who snatched his menu as soon as he sat down, lowered it long enough to say, “Hey.”

Leslie picked hers up and put it so it was blocking her face. Ann did the same.

“How’s it going?” she mouthed.

“I want to kill him,” Ann mouthed back.

“Same,” Leslie said.

“What are you two talking about?” Tom asked.

“How much they hate us,” Ben answered, sounding bored. “I need coffee.”

Leslie lowered her menu and glared at him. He didn’t react though, he just smiled at the waitress as she poured his coffee and thanked her.

“Waffles, Leslie?” she asked.

“Yes, please.”

“Coffee?”

“Yes. Can I get it with dessert toppings?”

“The Leslie Knope? You got it.”

After Shelley finished taking their order, Ben looked at Ann. “She’s going to get diabetes.”

“She’s actually very health-”

“Why do you care?” Leslie asked, taking a sip of her delicious syrup and whip cream topped coffee.

“I don’t.”

“Really? Because it looks like you do.”

“Whatever,” Ben said, “I’m leaving-” he began to stand up but then he stopped. “Fuck.”

“Forgot, didn’t you?”

He sat back down and stared at the table. “Shut up.”

Leslie laughed and began rubbing Ben’s back. He stiffened, making Leslie realize what she was doing. She snatched her hand away, and this time it was her turn to stare at the table.

Tom whistled. “Wow.”

“I agree,” Ann said, narrowing her eyes. "You’re acting weird.“

Was she? "Nothing happened!”

The table went quiet and she suddenly felt three pairs of eyes staring at her, none more intense than Ben’s.

“What do you mean, nothing happened?”

“Just that. Nothing happened. No one touched anyone or, you know, I’m just going to stop talking now.”

“No, you’re going to keep talking,” Ben said, “Who touched what?”

Tom leaned forward. “Did you touch his dick?”

“Eww, gross, Tom. No. Let’s just forget about it and eat, okay?” She could tell from Ben’s expression he had no intention of leaving it alone, so she began to stuff her face with her waffles, figuring he wouldn’t be able to make her talk if her mouth was full. 

She just had to last until Monday, and then she was free.

 

It was Tom’s idea to go to the mall in Eagleton. Leslie, of course, voted no, but seeing her displeasure in going, Ben said yes. Leslie pleaded with Ann to say no, after all she was the one with the car, but then she betrayed Leslie by saying, “Sure, why not?”

“Ann,” Leslie hissed. “What are you doing?”

“I want a cupcake.”

Leslie sighed. The mall in Eagleton did have amazing cupcakes. “Ugh, fine.”

“It’ll be okay, Les. Just, don’t get into any fights.”

“Don’t worry. If I do, I’ll just use Ben here as a shield.”

Ben glared at her and pulled her arm. “We’ll meet you by the north escalators,” he said to Ann and Tom. Leslie glared back, but climbed into his car and put on her seat belt and watched as Tom climbed into Ann’s car. She heard Ben’s door shut, but he didn’t start the engine.

“Are we go-”

“Who touched what?”

Oh god, he really wasn’t going to let it go was he? “Ben-”

“Leslie. Who touched what?”

She sighed. He was going to keep her here wasn’t he? She would have to have her mail forwarded to Ben’s car: JJ’s parking lot.

“Ugh, fine. Last night while you were asleep, you kind of held my um, boob.”

Ben fell back against his seat. “Fuck.”

“It wasn’t a big deal, no cupping or movement, you just had your hand on it.”

He blinked. “Right. If it wasn’t a big deal, then why are you acting so weird? Weirder, than usual.”

“I didn’t want you to feel awkward.”

Ben seemed to buy her flimsy excuse for all of two seconds. “You? Didn’t want me, to feel awkward. Really?”

“Yes, really.” She tried to keep her face straight.

He stared at her for a second, and then let out a low, “Damn it.”

“What?”

He turned away and started the ignition. “Nothing, let’s go.”

“No, what is it?”

Ben didn’t answer her though. He just turned his radio up and began singing along. It was probably better he didn’t say what he was thinking, as it was probably just rude and annoying anyway. Besides, it wasn’t like he could possibly know the truth, that she didn’t hate him touching her.

There was no way.

 

As much as Leslie hated Eagleton, she had to admit the mall was a lot nicer than the one in Pawnee. The Eagleton mall had Bath and Body Works and a carousel, where as the Pawnee Mall had a police station. However, as they walked to their various destinations, Leslie could see people staring at them. At first the thought it was because they knew they were from Pawnee, but then she realized they were staring at the handcuffs.

It was like they’d never seen two people handcuffed before.

Still, despite the staring and the fact she was in Eagleton and handcuffed to the worst person in the world, Leslie had to admit she wasn’t having a terrible time. Ben was being quiet, only talking when Tom or Ann asked him a question, and Tom was actually very nice, a little weird, but harmless. Best of all, Ann was there. Sure, it was hard to talk to her, because everything Leslie had to say couldn’t be said in front of Ben or Tom, but just being around her best friend was enough to make her happy.

That happiness went away when they left the Yankee Candle Company and ran right into Lindsay Carlisle Shay and her band of goons.

“Leslie!”

“Lindsay.”

“Hey, Lindsay,” Ben said, his voice soft. Leslie darted her eyes from him to her, trying to figure out why he was acting weird.

“Oh, hey, Dan.”

“Ben.”

Lindsay shook her head. “It doesn’t matter,” she said, looking back at Leslie. “So, what brings you to Eagleton? Are you finally taking my advice?”

“No, Lindsay, I’m not here to sell my soul like you.”

Lindsay’s smile fell and she ran her eyes over Leslie’s body. “What’s this?” she asked, pointing at the handcuffs. “I always knew you were into some kinky things, Leslie, but this?”

“It’s for school.”

“Sure it is.”

Ann placed her hand on Leslie’s shoulder. “Leslie, don’t.”

“Listen to your friend, Leslie,” Lindsay said, reaching out as if she was going to touch Leslie. “You should go see Raul at the salon, do something about all this mess.” 

Leslie glared at her back as she spun around and walked away, her goons following behind her.

“Leslie, you did great,” Ann started to say, only to be cut off by Ben going,

“Dan? Dan? We dated for two weeks and she called me Dan?”

The words dated for two weeks hit Leslie like a battering ram in the stomach. She was pretty sure she was going to throw up. “You and Lindsay went out?”

“You didn’t know that?” Tom asked. “Everyone knew that.”

Leslie didn’t. 

“Leslie?” Ann asked, “Are you o-”

“I’m great!” Leslie said, a little too enthusiastic even to her. “Let’s go get that cupcake!”

“Yeah, a cupcake for my cupcake,” Tom said, grinning like a maniac.

Ann pushed him. “Don’t ever say that.”

 

After the much needed chocolate boost, Leslie felt marginally better. The thought of Ben and Lindsay together still made her feel ill, but at least she felt ill with chocolate in her system. The thing that really got her was that for Ben, two weeks was a long time, so how did she miss it? Another thing that bothered her was how upset Ben seemed to be. He wasn’t even eating his cupcake. He was just picking at it.

“Okay.” Leslie sighed. She couldn’t believe she was about to do this. “She called you Dan because she knew it would hurt you. I was her best friend until she moved to Eagleton, remember? So I know. You can’t let it get to you.”

Ben didn’t look at her. “Yeah, whatever,” he said. “I’m ready to go whenever you are.”

Leslie sighed. This was what she got for trying to be nice to him. "Do you want to save your cupcake?“

"You can have it.”

Leslie wasn’t a fan of vanilla, so she put it in the box and closed it, thinking that maybe Ben would want it later.

 

She gave Ann an awkward hug when they reached the parking lot and watched her walk away. “So, what next?” she asked Ben as they walked to his car.

“Let’s just go home.”

Leslie nodded. “Yeah, okay. Oh hey, Andy’s throwing a party tonight, we could go.”

Ben let out breath and ran his free hand through his hair. “I’m not in in the mood.”

Leslie wanted to strangle him. “You’re right, it would be hard for you to mack on some girl while attached to me.”

“Oh, I’d make it work,” Ben said with a slight smirk as he opened his door, “you’re the one who’d feel awkward.”

“Aww.” Leslie couldn’t help but smile. “There’s the jerk I know and hate.”

They ended up watching movies and reading for the rest of the day until dinner.

“So, how was your day?” Marlene asked as Leslie bit into her burrito.

She answered after swallowing. “We went to Eagleton.”

“You didn’t get into a fight, did you?”

“It was close.”

Marlene raised her eyebrow and then turned to Ben. “So, Ben, do you know what college you’re going to yet?”

“Not yet, ma'am. I did pretty good on the SAT’S so I have some options. I kind of want to go somewhere small. Maybe somewhere in Minnesota, be near my mom and my sister for awhile.”

“That’s sweet,” Marlene said. Leslie tried not to roll her eyes. Marlene saying Ben was sweet was like Anne Bancroft seducing Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate. 

“Thanks.”

“I thought you had a date, mom.”

“It’s just drinks,” Marlene said, still smiling at Ben. Great, this was just what Leslie needed today. Not only did Ben go out with Lindsay Carlisle Shay, but he was also about to do it with her mom. She couldn’t wait to write that in her report. 

 

“I’m going to watch the Pacers game,” Ben said, after they’d cleaned the kitchen and gone back into the den. Marlene was upstairs, getting dressed for her date, or to seduce Ben, Leslie wasn’t sure.

She felt guilty for even thinking it, mostly because she knew her mom wasn’t like that and even if she was, why did it matter, beside the fact it was gross? Why did she care who Ben flirted with or dated?

Oh no.

Oh no, no no. She did not have a crush on Ben. There was no way. She hated him. He was sarcastic and cocky and no. She refused.

“Oh come on,” Ben yelled, “I could have made that shot from here!”

Leslie highly doubted that. “Hey, what did you mean when you said pretending to sleep with you didn’t make up for it?”

“What?” He didn’t look at her.

“Yesterday, you said it didn’t make up for what I did, what did I do?”

He looked at her then. “I’m trying to watch this.”

“Fine.” She opened her book and began to read. She didn’t really care, she was just curious what it was Ben thought she did to him.

A few minutes went by. “Do you really not remember?”

“I really don’t.”

“Seventh grade. Does that ring any bells?”

The only thing Leslie remembered about seventh grade was having braces and being teased by everyone, including Ben. “No.”

“Valentine’s day. The school had a dance and I asked you to dance and you said, and I quote, ‘hahahah you wish, turdboy.’”

Leslie did remember that. She remembered Ben asking her and all of his friends laughing behind him and just knowing this was one of their dirty pranks. “Oh, I remember that. It was really clever the way you thought you could trick me. What was the plan? Get me to say yes and then laugh at me or were you going to dance with me and throw dog food down my dress?”

“You’re fucking crazy,” Ben said after a minute of staring at her. “An absolute nutcase. I’m glad you said no.”

“If you’re so glad, then why does it matter?”

“It doesn’t.”

“Great,” Leslie said, turning back to her book. She could feel Ben clenching his fists beside her, listened to him take several deep breaths. With any luck he would calm down and go back to watching the game and leave her alone for the rest of the night.

But then she made the mistake of looking at him. He turned his head, his eyes meeting hers.

“I’m not going to kiss you.”

Great. Now she was going to think about him kissing her. “Good.”

“Good.”

One by one, all of the bricks of hate she’d built up in her mind concerning Ben were tumbling down. She looked down at her blanket. “You liked me? But you were always teasing me.”

He snickered. “Yeah. Well, thirteen year old boys are idiots, Leslie.”

Leslie laughed as she picked at a loose thread. “Yeah. Girls aren’t much better. I’m um, sorry.”

“Me too. And I’m sorry for uh, everything else.”

“Same. I’m even sorry for the time I told that French foreign exchange student that you had crabs.”

Ben shrugged. “It’s fine. We still went out.”

“Ugh, you’re such a slut.”

Ben smiled. “And you’re a pain in the ass, Knope.”


	6. Chapter 6

"Can’t sleep?” Leslie asked, stretching her sore shoulders. She couldn’t wait till she can sleep in her own bed.

“No. I can’t stop thinking,” Ben said, though he sounded tired.

“Me too,” Leslie admitted. She felt like something had broken between them, but in a good way. Now that she knew what the problem was, they could move forward. She didn’t want to go on hating Ben Wyatt for the rest of her life.

She wasn’t going to address her crush. Which did not exist. "Truce?“

He was silent for a moment but then he smirked. "Yeah, sure.”

“Friends?”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

Leslie laughed. “Fair point,” she said, but then he was reaching up and brushing her hair off of her face.

“Sorry,” Ben said, “your hair was in your face.”

“It’s okay. So, um, I don’t know about you, but I’m wide awake.”

“Me too.”

“Wanna play Connect Four?”

Ben’s devilish grin absolutely did not send a shiver down Leslie’s spine.

 

“I win again,” Ben said, with a smugness that made Leslie wish she had the power to set fire with her eyes. “Are you even trying?”

“I take back our truce,” she said, dumping the pieces out so they could play again. “I really do hate you.”

“Okay.” He was arranging his pieces into neat rows. It made her wonder if he wasn’t OCD somehow.

“You go first,” she said.

“You know, we can play something else.”

“Like what?”

“What do you have?”

Tired of losing Connect Four eight times in a row, Leslie said, “Let’s go look.”

They quickly put the game up and got up from the kitchen table just as Marlene walked in. “Hi, Dear,” she said, smiling the way she usually did after she had a good date. “Morning, Ben. Have two had breakfast yet?”

“Not unless you count the dozen or so cookies Leslie’s had,” Ben answered, smirking.

“It was not that much.”

“Get ready then, I’m taking you both to JJ’s.” 

 

It was while Ben was taking his shower, that Leslie lost her self control and took the quickest glance at him while he was washing his hair and singing R.E.M’s “Superman.” Thankfully, he did not seem to notice, but she saw him. He had slender shoulders and a long back and a tiny waist and a cute, flat butt. She’d noticed his butt before, she always said it was the only good part about him, but to see it in this context?

God she was a perv.

The water stopped and Leslie jumped, sure that he was going to yell at her for being creepy.

“Hey, hand me my towel.”

It took Leslie a beat to come to her senses, but then she grabbed one of the towels off the rack and handed it to him. Seconds later, he stepped out, towel tied tight around his waist. 

“I’m going to burn this shirt as soon as I can,” Ben said, glaring at the shirt dangling from the metal chain linking them together before slipping it back on.

“I was just thinking that too.”

Ben sighed. “Yeah. Okay, your turn.” He closed his eyes without being prompted.

 

You know, your mom’s really nice,“ Ben said as they went up to Leslie’s room to change pants.

"She had sex.”

“I’m sorry?”

“She always buys me breakfast after she has sex,” Leslie hissed. Usually she didn’t mind, because she loved breakfast, but that didn’t mean she wanted to discuss it with her former nemesis.

“Oh.”

There was something about the way he said it that annoyed Leslie to her core, so the moment they got into her room, she slammed the door and pushed him. “You have a crush on my mom!”

“Eww, no!” 

“Well then why are you flirting with her?”

“I’m not. And turn around.” He paused, then moved closer to her. “Unless you want to watch,” His tone was low, his lips curled up in a smile that made her feel like she was swimming in cashmere. "That,“ he said, voice back to normal, "is me flirting.”

“You’re such a jerk.”

“I know. Seriously though, turn around.”

Leslie rolled her eyes and turned, grabbing onto her headboard for support.

“Can I ask you something?” he asked.

“Sure.”

“What happened with you and that guy David?”

The question threw Leslie. Of all the things she expected Ben to ask, that was not it. “What?”

“You and David, what happened? You can turn around by the way.”

Leslie did, only to be distracted by the way Ben was combing his fingers through his hair. “What was the question?”

“I asked what happened with you and David.”

“We dated for a month and then he broke up with me. Actually, his mom broke up with me for him.”

Ben let out a bark of laughter. “Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“Wow.”

“Why are you asking?”

Ben shrugged. “He said some stuff about you, I was wondering if it was true.”

Leslie had a feeling she knew what Ben was referring to. The rumor had been circling since even before the break up, but she had not idea it was David who spread it, though it made sense, considering he was the only person who would have known, given he was the only person besides her in his car that night. "Yes, it’s true.“

Ben’s jaw dropped. "Really?”

“What?” Leslie asked, yanking a skirt out of her closet. “There wasn’t any place to wipe my hand so I had to lick it off okay?”

Ben swallowed. “No, no, I just, wow. I didn’t think you had it in you. I’m uh, impressed.” 

Leslie narrowed her eyes at him as his fell to her body. “Yeah, I bet you are. Turn around.”

“Yeah,” Ben said, still looking at Leslie in a way that made her skin feel hot. As far as she was concerned, it wasn’t a big deal. What was a big deal was David telling everyone about it. The next time she saw him, she was going to give him a piece of her mind. Decision to kick her ex’s ass made, she quickly changed.

“Done. I just have to get my shoes,” she said, bending over. As she did, Ben lost his balance and they fell to the floor.

Two things went through Leslie’s mind at that moment. The first was Ben smelled really good.

The other was that definitely wasn’t a gun in his pocket.

“Um, Ben?” It was one thing for her to admit to herself she found him attractive, it was another for him to be on top of her, sporting a hard on, although she didn’t mind it so much as the fact her stomach felt hot with hunger and she wanted to go. Otherwise, she might have been okay with staying like that forever.

She really was a pervert.

“Sorry.” He wasn’t making any effort to move though.

“Are you going to move?” She asked, hoping her voice wasn’t giving her away.

“Yeah, sorry,” Ben said, getting off her. “Sorry.”

“Yeah.”

In the movies, this was the part where they lunged at each other. But this was not the movies, so they quickly looked away and Leslie put on her shoes.

 

Breakfast was awkward to say the least. Marlene kept humming Barry White to herself, Leslie couldn’t look at Ben without thinking about his penis, not that she needed to look at him to think about that. To make matters worse, Rebecca Stacen came over. Rebecca was one of Ben’s exes; voted most beautiful girl in school three years in a row and was the meanest person Leslie had ever met.

“Hi, Ben.”

“Oh uh, hey, Rebecca.”

“You’re doing that lame handcuffed thing right?”

Leslie rolled her eyes. “We’re eating.” She didn’t miss they way her mom raised her eyebrow.

“You might want to lay off the carbs, Leslie,” Rebecca said, “it’s going straight to your thighs.”

“Okay,” Ben said, just as Marlene was opening her mouth. “You need to go.”

“What? I can’t talk to my favorite ex boyfriend?”

“Not now no. I’ll call you tomorrow night.”

“See that you do, Benji,” Rebecca said, running her finger down his arm before turning around and walking away.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

Leslie looked straight ahead at her mom, who was wearing the most unimpressed expression she’d seen in a while.

“Well, Ben, that was certainly interesting.”

“I’m really sorry,” he said again, but this time it wasn’t to Marlene, but rather Leslie. “Les-”

“It’s okay,” she said, though truthfully she was imagining a different scenario, one where her mother wasn’t there and Ben still hated her.

Ben’s finger brushed against hers in a way that had to be deliberate.

 

When they got home, Marlene announced she was going grocery shopping, kissed Leslie on the cheek and left, leaving Leslie completely alone with Ben. Her fingers were still tingling from where he touched them, her stomach full of butterflies, her heart racing. “So.”

“So.”

“What do you want to do? We should probably do our homework.”

“Yeah. Uh, let’s what a movie while we uh, do that.” Ben at least sounded as affected as she felt. That made Leslie feel a tinge better about her situation.

Ben insisted they watch Blade Runner, which Leslie didn’t even know they had. Unfortunately, the movie, the frustration of trying to do her math homework while he commented on the movie and the apparent differences between the version they were watching and the director’s cut, having been awake since four o'clock and everything that happened so far that day finally got the better of her and she fell asleep.

She woke up some time later, only to feel Ben’s breath in her ear. “Go back to sleep.”

So she did

 

They woke up, tangled together, just as Marlene’s car pulled up into the driveway. They quickly broke apart. Neither said anything for a moment as Leslie smoothed out her clothes. The door opened and Marlene’s voice rang out that she was home, and could they come help her. Quickly they got up and went outside, both taking as many sacks as they could. While they put the groceries away, Marlene’s eyes flickered to Leslie’s hair. It took Leslie a moment to realize why her mom was looking at her that way.

“It’s not what you think.”

“I wasn’t aware you were a mind reader, Leslie,” Marlene said.

Leslie sighed. “Right.”

Marlene studied Leslie for a moment. “You’re still taking your birth control, right?”

“Mom,” Leslie said, voice sharp.

“Wait, what’s going on?” Ben asked, as if he was just now noticing the tension.

“Mom thinks we had sex.”

“Oh.” The tips of Ben’s ears turned red. It would have been cute if this conversation wasn’t so humiliating. “I can reassure you, we didn’t. I’m not attracted to her. She’s not even my type.”

“See mom?” Leslie said, ignoring the punch in her gut, “I’m not even his type!”

Marlene just stared at them, but then her lips curled upwards in the slightest smile, before directing her words solely at Ben. “We both know that isn’t true.” And without another word, she left the kitchen.

 

The next few hours went by in silence except for the cheesy eighties action flick on the TV that neither seemed to have any interest in. They did their homework in the bed, and Leslie tried hard not to think about how adamant Ben was that he wasn’t attracted to her. She was also trying not to be distracted by his bare feet, though she couldn’t help but look over her book every once in while peak at his toes. They were nice toes.

Everything was just so much simpler when she hated him.

But then she finished her homework for her other classes and there was nothing left to do except write the joint paper about what they’d learned.

“Ben?”

“Hmm?”

“We have to write that paper.”

Ben shut his American Government book. “Right. Uh, how?”

“No idea,” Leslie admitted as they stood up. “We can use the computer in the office but I’m not sure how we’re supposed to type like this.”

He made a face of displeasure and then let out a breath. “Well, we have to at least try. I’m not going to have spent my weekend with you only to blow my grade.”

Leslie’s blood boiled with anger. “What’s your fucking problem?” she asked, pushing him.

“Don’t push me, Knope. And I don’t have a problem.”

“Don’t be a jerk and I won’t push you!” She pushed him again, to demonstrate her point. He said nothing, just glared down at her. “What?” she asked.“Did I do something? Are you made you couldn’t go off and fuck Rebecca at breakfast?”

“No! I hate her!”

Leslie didn’t have time to think about that information, because then Ben was in her face, voice low and rough. “Leave it alone.”

“I’ll leave it alone when you stop acting like an asshole to me. If I did something, tell me.”

“It’s not about you.”

“Of course not,” Leslie said, “You’re just using me as your verbal punching bag.”

Ben’s face went pale and he looked like he wanted to throw up. His shoulders were shaking, hands trembling.

“I’m sorry.”

It was not the apology itself that got to Leslie, but rather the way he said it, small and to the floor, completely sincere and afraid.

It was the fear in his voice that made her hug him. It was quick and unreciprocated, but it seemed to get her message across.

“Chris never called to say my dad was looking for me.”

Oh. “I’m sorry.”

“I mean, I don’t know what I expected. I was once gone a whole week before he noticed, I just, I don’t know.”

Leslie nodded. “I know. mom’s gone a lot too. Work conferences and meetings and single’s cruises.”

“Yeah, but at least she’s nice. My dad is terrifying. I don’t even know why I want him to care that I’m gone.”

“Because he should?”

Ben just shrugged. “He could be worse. A lot worse. And he loves me, I just, never feel good enough.” He shook his head and laughed. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this.”

Leslie smiled. “Because you secretly think I’m awesome and love me.”

“No, I don’t think that’s it.” But he was smiling too. "Let’s go write this paper.“


	7. Chapter 7

Despite Leslie’s fears about how writing the paper would go, it was actually easier to type than she thought. Her struggle though, came from trying to think of things to say about Ben that didn’t give her crush away. She also worried about Ben and how he was doing since his earlier outburst, but whenever she glanced at him, he’d just smile softly and point to the screen. She wanted to ask how he was, but she also knew he would just evade the question.

“It was an eye opening experience,” Ben read along, “I learned my feelings for Ben were not what I thought they were.”

Oh crap on a cracker. She didn’t actually write that did she? Leslie scans the screen, sure enough, there it is in new times roman twelve font.

“I just mean I don’t hate you.”

“Aww,” Ben said, tilting his head and smiling at her. “You’re adorable.”

She tried her best not to take him seriously but the compliment, as insincere as it was, made Leslie feel like she’d just won a race.

“Yo, Knope, stop staring.”

“Oh sorry,” she said, and quickly got back to work. When she was done, they started to trade places, only to realize it wasn’t going to be as easy for him to type as it was for her.

“Shit.”

“Um, I could write it? You tell me what to say.”

Ben groaned. “Crap, yeah okay.”

They sat back down and Leslie typed in Ben’s name and then waited. After a minute, she looked at him. “Ben?”

“You kick in your sleep.”

“What?”

“Write that. Write, Leslie Knope kicks in her sleep.”

“I do not!”

“The bruises on my shins say different.”

Leslie rolled her eyes. “I just said a lot of nice stuff about you and that’s what you have to say about me? That I kick?”

“You’re also extremely hot,” Ben said, “body temperature wise. It’s like sleeping with a furnace.” A beat went by, where Leslie could do nothing but stare at him. “C'mon, Knope, get typing.”

“One second,” Leslie said, going back up to her part, “I’m amending my earlier statement about not hating you.”

“But I’m absolutely crazy about you.”

She was going to murder him, and then herself. That was the only solution. “I’m going to write that,” she said, going to his section to write that he was crazy about her. Ben said nothing.

“You’re not going to stop me?”

“Nope. Although I do think you should also write the stuff about your kicking.”

“Fine,” Leslie said, adding it in just so he’d shut up about it. “What else?”

“I’m thinking.”

“Well please think faster, I’d like to go to bed soon.”

“The amount of sugar you consume is concerning.”

“Ugh,” Leslie said, writing it. “Remind me to add that you have a face like a turd.”

“You like my face.” Ben laughed, “You want to kiss it.”

“You wish.” Leslie hoped her skin wasn’t as red as it felt.

Ben didn’t seem to notice it though, or if he did, he didn’t mention it. “You’re um one of the most generous people I know.”

“Thanks.”

“Yeah, well, I already knew that.” Ben shrugged. “I’m getting too tired to think straight.”

“It is getting late,” Leslie said, looking at the clock. “We only have a little more to go.”

“Hmm yeah.”

Leslie waited a moment for Ben to continue telling her what to write about herself. “Ben?”

“Keep going,” he said, yawning.

“What do you want me to say?”

“Say,” he paused and she waited a moment before looking at him, only to see his eyes were closed.

She reached out and shook him. “Ben!”

“What? Sorry. Uh, are you done yet?”

“No, you have to tell me what to write.”

He ran his hand over his face. “Fuck it, make something up.”

“I can’t just make something up!”

He yawned again. “Sure you can. Just say some stuff about how you’re a pain in the ass and I’m not sure if I want to strangle or kiss you and then put in something about how you smell good and how you’re nice and we’ll be good.”

Leslie could only stare at him. “You want to kiss me?”

He opened his eyes. “Huh?”

“Nothing,” she said, then she turned back to the screen and started writing. When she was done, she printed out two copies and gently shook Ben awake.

“We can go to bed now.”

“Finally.”

In the morning, Leslie found herself sleeping on Ben’s chest. One of his arms was tucked around her, the other laying by his side. However, it was where her hand was that gave her pause.

“Uh, Leslie?”

“I don’t suppose you don’t notice that.”

“What, that your hand is on my dick?”

“Yes." It felt nice. Too nice actually. She was going to have a hard time thinking in school now. Or about anything really, now that she knew what his penis felt like in her hand. 

"Well, yeah. But it’s cool.”

“Of course you think it’s cool,” Leslie said wanting to cry, as she moved her hand away.“You’re a guy, any hand on your dick is great.”

“Not true. There are lots of girls hands I wouldn’t want touching me. I’m not that much of a slut.”

“You shouldn’t shame yourself.”

“You called me one yesterday,” Ben said, “but what I was going to say is this makes us even right? I hold your breast, you hold my dick, it’s…okay this might be worse.”

“Only because we’re both awake and sharing the experience together. I’m really sorry.”

“Again, it’s cool. but now I have to piss.”

The mention of using the bathroom was a cue for Leslie’s bladder to say, “Me too!” so Leslie sat up and they got out of the bed and slumped toward the bathroom. As she waited, she took a sniff of her shirt and instantly winced. The toilet flushed and a moment later, Ben told Leslie it was her turn.

“Well at least we won’t be the only people wearing the same clothes, right?”

“Unless they cut it off.”

“Well, I know Tom would never cut his shirts,” Leslie said, and Ben chuckled.

“Yeah.”

“And how would you even put a new shirt on?”

“Fair point,” Ben said, his lips curled up in a slight smirk.

They brushed their teeth and Leslie waited while Ben shaved. She watched him, trying not to salivate when he lifted his jaw.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Are you going to call Cindy?”

“Nah, she’s not really my type.”

Cindy Miller was exactly Ben’s type, but Leslie wasn’t about to argue with that. “Okay.”

“I’m not going to call Rebecca either, in case you’re wondering.”

“I didn’t think you were,” Leslie said, “since you said you hate her.”

Ben gave Leslie a look that she couldn’t read and then turned back to finish shaving the other side of his face. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Is there anyone you like?”

Leslie’s stomach clenched. “Um, no,” she said, then instantly regretted it, “you know I take that back. There kind of is. But it’s kind of new and I’m not sure if it’s real or just, you know, circumstances.”

Ben looked at though he knew exactly what she meant. “Yeah. I uh, get that.”

“Right. So um, what do you want to eat? I think we have some pop tarts.”

“Actually, I thought I might buy us breakfast. As a thank you or whatever. I’m kind of wanting some McDonalds.”

While Leslie prefered JJ’s for breakfast, she had to admit Mcdonalds sounded pretty great, especially if Ben was paying for it.

She beamed and he smiled back and handed her her backpack. “Let’s go.”

“I’m going to try to park near your car so we can move your stuff back.”

“Okay.” Her heart was racing. Why was it that she could drink seven hot cocoas in a row and feel fine, but a McDonald’s sausage Mcgriddle made her feel like she was about to burst at the seams? What did they put in those things? Cocaine?

“You’re shaking.”

“It’s nothing.”

“I told you not to eat two of those things,” Ben said, shaking his head as he pulled into the parking lot. “God damn it, there are no spaces near your car.”

“It’s okay,” she said, looking out the window as they passed her car, grateful it was still there and in one piece. “we can get it after school.”

“I can’t, I have a thing.”

Leslie feared what that thing was. Even though she had been with Ben the entire time and he hadn’t talked to anyone about having a date, that didn’t mean there wasn’t one planned before they were handcuffed. As far as she knew, Ben had a date scheduled for every day of the week.

“Oh, okay well, uh, I guess just-”

“It’s fine, I’ll get them to you. I’ll let you know.”

“Right, okay,” Leslie said, needing to look everywhere but at him.

When they got into the school, Leslie was surprised to see a lot of people from their class were walking around, sans handcuffs, including Ann, who ran up to them.

“You have to go to Mrs. Hemsley’s class now, they’re taking everyone’s handcuffs off.”

Leslie instantly began to panic. She thought she had six more hours with Ben, but now they were going to be un handcuffed and he was going to go have sex with pretty brunettes and go back to hating her and she was going to be alone with her stupid crush. 

Ben was already pulling her to the classroom though. There was a short line in front of them and two teachers and a janitor were unlocking people. Mrs. Hemsley was nowhere to be seen.

His thumb brushed the back of her hand. She met his eyes and he smiled. He didn’t say anything but she instantly felt calm. Their truce, their friendship, whatever they wanted to call it, wasn’t going to disappear. Okay, maybe they weren’t going to ever be best friends but he wasn’t going insult her anymore.

“Ben, right?”

Both Leslie and Ben turned around at the same time. For some reason, even though she was wearing the same thing she had on Friday, Cindy looked perfect.

Garth just stared down at the floor. 

“Hi.” He smiled at her and Leslie turned away and rolled her eyes. Not his type her ass.

“You two, over here!” One the of the teachers, yelled, gesturing at them. The walked in tandem together. Leslie stared at Ben, but he was looking straight ahead, but she could tell from the way his jaw twitched he was angry.

She wondered if it was for the same reason she was. “Ben-” she started, but then there was a click and Mr. Brewer was pulling the handcuffs off and dumping them in the box with the others and telling them to go to class.

It was extremely anticlimactic. She stared down at the red welt on her arm. It was the only proof that this even happened and in a few days it would be gone too.

“What do you have for you first class?” Ben asked as they walked out.

“Bio. You?”

“Uh, Calculus but I’m gonna go home I think.”

“Oh. You’re going to skip?” There were times when Leslie thought about skipping, but her fear of getting into trouble and it going on her permanent record was too much. She didn’t blame him for wanting to leave though.

“Yeah. I’ll get your stuff to you later, okay?”

“Yeah, okay. I just need it by Wednesday.”

“Okay.” He smiled and walked away. She watched him, but then he stopped, right in front of some girl to talk to her.

Leslie turned away. She couldn’t watch this.

Throughout the day, Leslie would look over and expect Ben to be sitting next to her. But instead it was someone else. She glanced around, wondering if anyone else was having the same problem. Everyone either seemed angry or sad. Only Jerry and Gayle seemed to be happy. They were holding hands and rubbing their noses together.

She didn’t understand that at all.

“Okay, spill,” Ann said as she sat down at their lunch table with her tray. “What happened with you and Ben?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? I’m really supposed to believe that.”

“It’s true,” Leslie said adding more salt to her fries.

“That’s insane. You two clearly want each other. Hell, even I made out with Tom.”

“You did what?”

“Don’t make this about me!” Ann said voice rising and earning a few inquisitive looks. “I mean,” her voice softened, “it was terrible and it’s never going to happen again, but really? Nothing happened with you and Ben?”

“Nope. I mean, there were moments, but that’s it.”

Ann reached over the table and pushed Leslie. “I can’t believe you!”

“I’m sorry?”

“You should be! You’ve been in love with him for years and you finally get the chance to do something-”

“I have not!”

“And you did nothing about it!”

Leslie looked down at her tray. “We’re friends now?” No, not even that. A truce.

Ann just sighed. Leslie didn’t blame her.

Mrs. Hemsley was gone. There were rumors she had been fired.

The paper it turned out was unnecessary as they were all given automatic A’s, according to the sub, as decreed by the principal.

She could already hear Ben complaining. The thought made her laugh.

Oh god, Ann was right. She really was in deep wasn’t she? 

Well, it was fine. She was going to go home, write about this in her journal, eat some waffles and watch Animal Planet and bottle up all of her feelings. She liked Ben, Ben liked Cindy, Cindy liked Ben.

It made sense.

Except, it didn’t. From the way Ben acted, it really felt like he liked her. But maybe it was a game? Maybe he decided that being nicer to her for the weekend was better because it made her put her guard down and now he was laughing about it with Cindy or Rebecca or whatever girl he happened to be getting a hand job from. It was probably Lindsey.

Leslie slammed her locker closed just as Rebecca walked by. As she watched, she happened to see Cindy walk through the intersection of hallways.

Well, that didn’t mean they weren’t laughing.

“Hi, Leslie.”

Leslie jumped. “Oh, hi.”

“Dave.”

“I know,” she said, smiling up at him. “what’s up?”

“I was just wondering if you wanted to go see a movie sometime.”

Leslie barely knew Dave, but he was nice and his red hair was kind of cute. More important, Ben didn’t seem to actually be interested, so she smiled and shrugged. “Sure.”

“Oh uh, I didn’t expect you to say yes. Uh, how about Friday?”

“Friday’s great. Do you want my number? You can call me before then.”

She ignored the pang in her stomach as she wrote her number down on his notebook.


	8. Chapter 8

“What do you think about this one?” Leslie held a blue shirt to her chest. Ann looked up from her copy of Vogue.

“It’s good.”

“You said that about the last six shirts.”

Ann sighed. “And I meant it. All of these-” she gestured at the various clothes on Leslie’s bed-“are great! You’re going bowling. Where whatever you go bowling in.”

Leslie thought for a minute before shaking her head. “I don’t think I can wear my team’s shirt on a date.”

“You’re on a bowling team?”

“Of course! We’re the Golden Gals and we got to to the finals last year. We would have won but Maggie missed a seven ten split and we lost to the Crustyballs.” She growled under her breath at the memory and then went back to trying to decide what she wanted to wear on her date.

“Why are you even going on this date anyway? Don’t get me wrong, Dave’s nice, but you should be going out with Ben.”

“Ben,” Leslie said, pausing to glare at Ann, “doesn’t like me.”

“He’s done nothing but stare at you like a lost puppy all week,” Ann said. Leslie had to admit, Ben did stare at her a lot the last week, to the point where she actually asked if he was okay, only for him to retort back with, “Shouldn’t you be planning your wedding with Sanderson?” To which Leslie tried to explain she wasn’t getting married she was just going on a date and then Ben rolled his eyes and walk away, toward the first girl he saw.

Leslie assumed this also meant their truce was over.

“Trust me, Ann, Ben doesn’t care.”

Ann looked like she wanted to argue, but threw Leslie a red t shirt and some jeans. “Wear that.”

Leslie was ready just in time for Dave to ring her doorbell. “How do I look?”

“Good,” Ann said, just as they heard Marlene greet Dave. Leslie took one last look at herself in the mirror and tightened her pony tail before straightening her shoulders and going down stairs with Ann following behind.

“Hi, Dave.”

Dave smiled shyly at Leslie. “Uh, hi. Hi, Ann.”

“Hey.”

“Leslie, may I have a word with you? Ann too,” Marlene said, gesturing toward her office.

“Sure, mom. I’ll be right back,” she assured Dave.

“Okay.”

Leslie and Ann followed her mom into her office. Leslie wasn’t sure what she wanted, but she knew from the tone in her voice that it wasn’t anything good.

“You know, Leslie, when you said you had a date I just assumed it was with Ben.” She had her arms crossed over her chest, like she’d just caught Leslie sneaking back in after curfew. Which Leslie had never broken, but she imagined it would be the same type of scenario.

“I-”

Before Leslie could defend herself though, Marlene was staring down Ann. “What do you have to do with this?”

“Nothing! I want her to go out with Ben! I am one hundred percent team Ben and Leslie. I’m the freaking captain.”

“You know, Dave’s really nice-”

“I’m sure he’s very sweet, although he does seem a little on the dumb side,” Marlene said, sounding as if she was stating a mere fact, “but he’s no Ben.”

Seeing Ann nod in agreement made Leslie explode. “Fine, if you two love him so much, why don’t you go out with him?” Then she spun on her heels and marched out. “Let’s go, Dave.” She opened the door and walked out, not waiting for him to follow.

“So, what’s your best score?” Dave asked as they put their bowling shoes on.

“A one sixty five,” Leslie answered, making sure her laces were tight. “You?”

“Uh, nothing that good,” Dave said, “You’re uh, probably going to beat me.”

“Is that a problem?”

“Nope. Not problem at all.” Dave smiled at her, making Leslie feel warm. Only that warmth quickly vanished at the sight of a very familiar plaid shirt and dark hair at the lane next to theirs.

“What is he doing here?” she asked under her breath, only Dave started looking around.

“Who?”

“Leslie!” Hearing her name being called, Leslie glanced around until she saw Brandi Maxwell waving at her.

She was sitting next to Ben, who was putting in their names.

Oh, well that was just fantastic.

“Hello Brandi,” she said, taking a ball from the shelf while Dave searched for his.

Ben turned around. “Oh, well hello, Knope. I didn’t know you were going to be here tonight.”

Leslie was pretty sure this was a lie. He did know. “Well-”

“Oh, we should play together!”

Ben’s eyes lit up at Brandi’s suggestion. “That’s an excellent idea, babe.” The last thing Leslie wanted to do was double, but he was already calling out to Dave, “Hey, Sanderson! You two wanna play us?”

“Sure.”

Ben smirked. “Awesome.” Then he proceeded to type in their names.

“Knope?” Leslie asked, then she shook her head. At least he hadn’t typed in anything mean.

“You’re first, babe.”

Brandi grinned and took her ball to the line. Leslie watched as the ball hit two of the pins and then rolled off into the gutter.

“Great job, babe!” Ben yelled.

“Are you calling her babe because you don’t know her name?”

Ben winked at Leslie and then stood up when Brandi came back to get her ball to try again. He kissed her cheek. “You’re doing great, Brandi.”

Leslie rolled her eyes. She knew Ben was putting on a show for her, but what she couldn’t figure out was why.

Brandi managed to hit three more pins, then Ben took his turn, getting a spare.

Leslie never actually considered that Ben might be good.

While Dave took his turn, Ben sat next to Brandi and put his arm around her. “So, how did you two know each other?”

“We both ran for student council president last year,” Brandi said, smiling at Leslie. “And we have communications together. Leslie gave me really good feedback on my video project.”

“Really, what was your project?”

“Oh, I wrote, directed and starred in my own film.”

“Really?” Ben asked, as if this was the greatest thing he’d ever heard. “That so? What advice did she give you?”

“To take out the sex.”

Ben’s stunned expression was almost worth the five minutes Leslie spent watching Brandi’s movie, but then he narrowed his eyes at her. “Of course she did.”

While Ben didn’t say prude, Leslie heard it loud and clear. “It was a school project and she might be eighteen but there are still rules and she could get into trouble-”

“It’s okay, Leslie,” Brandi said, placing her hands on Leslie’s. “It’s okay if you’re not okay with your own sexuality.”

“Yeah, Knope. It’s okay.”

“You’re up, Leslie,” Dave said. Leslie jumped to her feet, before she said something stupid like did it seem she had a problem with her sexuality when she had her hand on his dick?

She walked up to the approach, took a deep breath and threw the ball down the center of the lane, knocking every pin down.

Take that, Ben Wyatt.

Through the next several turns, Leslie did her best to cheer Dave on even though he really wasn’t as good, but at least Brandi was worse so as long as Leslie kept bowling consistent strikes and nothing less than nine and eight pin spares and Ben didn’t start bowling strikes, her team would win and she might beat her personal best.

At the very least, she would beat Ben.

“So, uh, Leslie, who are you doing your U.S Government project on?” Dave asked while Brandi was up.

“Madeleine Albright.”

“Oh. Who’s that?”

It wasn’t just that Dave didn’t know who Madeleine Albright was that bothered Leslie, it was Ben’s double take, followed by what she could only describe as pure joy. It made sense though, of course Ben would be happy that Leslie’s date wasn’t going well. He was a jerk.

“She was the first female secretary of state.”

“Oh. cool.”

“Yeah,” she said, looking down so she didn’t have to keep noticing Ben’s expression.

Between the sixth and seventh frames, Dave went to the snack bar and Brandi went to the restroom, leaving Leslie and Ben alone. She nervously took a sip of her coke and avoided eye contact.

“So, Brandi’s not your usual type.”

“I could say the same about Dave.”

Leslie had to concede he had a point. She said nothing though, only thinking, ‘yeah.’ “Really though, why?”

“Why am I here with her?”

“Yes.”

“To make you jealous,” he said, with a casual shrug of his shoulders as he shook his cup. “I’m going to get refill. I’ll be right back.” He walked away, leaving Leslie completely stunned for a few seconds before she snapped back into reality and chased after him.

“What do you mean by that?” She grabbed his sleeve and pulled. He stopped, spinning around so fast she almost crashed into him. She steadied herself and waited for a response, but he didn’t give one. Instead, he just stared at her, saying nothing, his face completely unreadable. Then he smiled, like he knew something she didn’t.

“Oh hey, there you are!” Brandi said, coming over and looping her arm through Ben’s. “What’s going on?”

“We were just talking,” Ben answered, “I was gonna get another Pepsi, you want one?”

“Diet,” Brandi said, kissing Ben on his cheek. He gave her a smile walked away toward the line. Leslie’s heart was still pounding frantically, and Brandi look of disbelief wasn’t helping. “We really just talking.”

“Oh, Leslie,” Brandi said, her voice sweet as she put her hand on Leslie’s shoulder, “it’s okay. We all know you two had sex while you were handcuffed.”

“What? No!” What did Brandi mean? Everyone knew? Was that really what people believed? “No!”

“Oh, Leslie. You don’t have to lie. It’s really obvious. I see the way you look at each other.”

Leslie didn’t know what to say, but it turned out she didn’t have to because Dave came back to them at that moment, holding a burger in one hand and a large drink and a bag of X-treme Twisties in the other.

“I got you some candy.”

Leslie smiled as she took the bag. “Thanks.”

But not even a bag of sugar could make Leslie feel better. Through the final three frames, Leslie made a mental list of what she knew.

1: Dave was nice and he liked her.

2: But they didn’t seem to have anything in common.

3: Ben wasn’t nice and he didn’t like her. Except he admitted he was trying to make her jealous and why make someone jealous if you don’t like them? But then again, Ben was a jerk, except when he wasn’t.

4: She liked Ben. She didn’t want to, but every time he smiled at Brandi and called her babe, Leslie wanted to rip her hair out.

The list only served to make Leslie even more confused, and she was unable to get her head straight when she took her turn during the eighth pin, only knocking down six of the pins.

“Are you okay, Leslie?”

“I’m great,” she said, shaking her hands out as she waited for her ball to return.

She wasn’t great though, which is why she only managed to knock down two more pins. She was sure Ben was going to say something, but he didn’t. He just looked at her while Dave fumbled his way at telling her she was still awesome.

But she wasn’t really listening to Dave. She was staring back at Ben, unable to disconnect her eyes from his until he stood up to take his turn.

He bowled a strike. 

The crash of the pins and the ridiculous fist pump he did were like an electric charge, waking Leslie up. By the time it was her turn again, she was ready. She didn’t know what Ben was thinking or why he was staring at her. She didn’t know if she was ever going to go out with Dave again, though probably not. She didn’t know if Brandi was right. What she did know though was she was an excellent bowler.

She watched as the ball rolled right down the center, hitting the first pin, knocking it and all the others behind it down.

She moon walked back to her chair, doing a little spin before sitting back down.

Ben chuckled, but then he stopped, just as Dave put his arm around Leslie’s shoulder. He rolled his eyes and stood up, taking his ball to the line.

Leslie ate her X-Treme Twisties as he got a spare.

“Final round, Knope,” he said when he came back. “You ready?”

“As ready as you are.”

“Oh, I was born ready.”

Brandi coughed, and Leslie was pretty sure she was saying, “Did it.”

Dave, thankfully, didn’t seem to notice the tension as he looked at the scoreboard. “Oh. You two are tied.”

“Well what do you know?” Ben said, even though he obviously already knew. “What do you say to a little wager, Knope?”

“What kind of wager?”

“Loser buys the winner a calzone.”

Leslie pulled a face at the thought of eating such a pointless food. “I don’t want a calzone.”

“I know,” he said, winking. “I’m going to win, and you’re going to buy me a calzone.”

Leslie was going to retort, but Brandi turned around and said, “You two are making me lose my concentration.”

“Sorry, babe.”

“Sorry,” Leslie said, crossing her arms and glaring at Ben.

He just smiled back, like an asshole.

Brandi and Dave took their turns, Dave getting his first strike of the night. Leslie high fived him and kissed his cheek, which probably wasn’t the nicest thing, given she was really doing it just to see what Ben would do, which was nothing apart from glare and put his hand on Brandi’s thigh.

Leslie wondered how Brandi felt about this. Brandi was smiling, but she was always smiling, so it was impossible to tell.

“Are you going to go or what?”

“Loser buys the winner waffles.”

“Deal.”

“I demand a rematch.”

He beat her by one point. One lousy, stupid point. Not only was it unjust, but she needed to regain her honor. And if that meant playing Ben’s stupid ass again, then that’s what she would do.

“You got it. You, me, tomorrow night, here. I’ll even buy you JJ’s after.”

“Fine.”

He smiled and nodded at Brandi. “Let’s go.”

“Bye, Leslie! Bye, Dave.”

Leslie watched them leave. They were walking side by side, but they weren’t touching. It was only when she saw him hold hold the door for her that she came to her senses. “What just happened?”

“Well, you just agreed to go on a date with another guy.”

Oh. That’s what she thought happened. It was so like Ben to trick her into going out with him, and to ask her while she was on date with someone else? While he was on a date with someone else? Well she just didn’t know what to say. “Um-”

“It’s okay, I uh, kinda thought you might be into the guy.”

Dave’s words did nothing to make Leslie feel better. “I’m the worst.”

“No, you’re not,” Dave said, though it was obvious he was disappointed. “I do think that guy is kind of a dick though, you could do better.”

She knew on some level, Dave was right. Ben did have a tendency to be a bit of a jerkface but he was also sweet and cute and smart and funny and god, how gone was she? Things were so much easier when she thought she hated him. Leslie shook the thought away and and hugged Dave. “I really do like you.”

“I like you too.” He shook his head though. “You want to get some waffles?”

“I better not.”

“Right, yeah, that’d be weird. I’m not dropping you off at that dude’s house.”

The house was dark and her mother’s Audi was gone when Dave dropped Leslie off. He walked her to her door and kissed her hand, where she apologized again. When she went inside, and flipped on the light she saw a note her mother left her.

“Went to Steven’s,” it read, “will be home in the morning, hope your date went well, love, mom.”

Leslie shook her head at the note and then she headed upstairs, set on taking a shower and then calling Ann. Only her plan was disrupted by the sight of Ben on her bed.

“Hey, Knope.”

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Your mom let me in.”

Leslie crossed her arms. “My mom let you in.”

“Before she left, yeah. I don’t know if you know this but your mom loves me.” He smirked and Leslie felt that same pool of lustful anger she always did when he was around. He stood up and walked over to her, causing the feeling to get even stronger. Still, she wasn’t going to just give in.

“You shouldn’t be in my room.”

“I was looking for your diary. I couldn’t find it.”

“I keep it very well hidden,” Leslie said, keeping her arms crossed. She wasn’t moving, no matter how cute his mouth was. “You ruined my date.”

“That’s debatable.”

Leslie growled. “And you used Brandi to do it!”

“No I didn’t. She knew what I was doing. She was in on it.”

“She was in on it? How?”

“Easy, I said to her, 'hey, you wanna help me ruin Leslie’s date?’ and she asked me why and I said 'because I like her,’ and she said-”

“You like me?”

Ben stopped talking and ran his fingers through his hair. “I told you I did. and I thought we were both on the same page but then you decided to go out with Sanderson-”

“I do,” she said, her stomach doing flip flops. “But you were the one who just left school without telling me why.”

“I felt sick.”

“You were fine the next day.”

“I mean, I was nervous.”

Leslie laughed, because the thought of Ben being nervous to the point of feeling sick was hilarious. “You were nervous. You. You ask out girls all the time.”

“Yeah, but they you know, sex.” He shook his head. “Sorry, I meant, it’s different. You’re different. I want, when I think about you, it’s not sex I think about, okay it is, but it’s not all I think about-”

She couldn’t let this continue, for his sake. “Please stop.”

“Thank you.”

Leslie sighed and went over to her dresser. “Look, I’m going to take a shower and freak out and you can uh, wait here I guess. Then we’ll talk.” She got her pajamas and started to walk to her door, but Ben blocked her exit. “What are you doing?”

“Giving you something to really freak out about.”

Leslie was about to reply that he had a lot to freak out about, but her mouth became too occupied by Ben’s mouth to actually voice the words. It took Leslie a second to catch on, but her pajamas fell out of her hand as his found its way into her hair. By the time he pulled away, every thought she had just faded away. “Ben.”

He picked her pj's up and handed them to her, smiling that same smile from the bowling alley. She wanted to wipe it off his face, so she did.

“I thought you were going to shower.”

“I am.” She was, eventually. After they made out for ten minutes or her lips got too sore, whichever happened first.

Ben chuckled against her lips. “Okay.” He didn’t seem to eager for her to leave either. She counted that as a win.


End file.
